Memento Mori
by A-Coward-with-Coffee
Summary: Prophesies and brotherhood; stolen hearts and a brewing war. All of which begins with two lone brothers who stand upon the seashore where the story commences with silent goodbyes and ends in rebirth. (Roxas- centric AU)


Somewhere in a world in between worlds, a boy awoke; the prince regained his soul and finally, the story ends with the lone boy who finally returns home. It is rude to start from the end thus, this book begins anew- from where many other stories of this nature began:

It starts with a young man who stood beside his brother, the waves lapping against their bare feet as they watched the sunset, melted ice creams in hand.  
"Sora?" Asked the younger brother, voice hushed in the face of the crashing waves  
"Yeah, Roxas?" his brother replied, eyes still admiring the sunset  
"I'm glad that it's you…"  
"What?" the younger boy smiled at his brother's confusion as Sora had turned to face him  
"Never mind." He'd laughed and turned to face the setting sky's profile against the waves instead of his brother's vaguely baffled face.

These boys were not so much human as the more mundane residents of their costal city. Beyond the bland humanoid format: a torso, head and limbs, their people had evolved. Humans were a common ancestor but, as time progressed, they lost almost all similarities. Humans grew greedy while they grew passive; humans plundered though they shared; humans destroyed and they all but existed. It was always the same: them and humans. There was always a distinction between the two.

Time progressed and the elusive supernatural creatures of the earth blossomed.  
There were elf clans with eerie beauty- symmetry which made them far more flawless than humans with delicate ears more defined than the strange ones belonging to humans while there were also elemental creatures, appearing human one moment and godly the next. There were vixens and sirens; phantoms and goblins; demons and angels. So it was a universal mystery why Sora and Roxas Hartz had come out so…human whereas their parents were far from it. Their father was an elf belonging to the people of the northern lands- Scandinavia as per the human name- and their mother was a beautiful sea elf belonging one and all to the mother of the ocean with a full tanned figure and beautiful hazel curls. Though their marriage was shunned by their father's people, their mother's elven tribe were joyful. Thus, the children were born by the ocean where their lives both diverged. Sora was born with his mother's face whilst Roxas looked similar to their father yet not quite the same as any of them.

While the two boys were surprisingly human, there was something about their eyes: to blue; too bright. Sora's were too fiercely emotionally, gleaming- physically gleaming when he was especially angry and growing dull when he was sullen. Roxas' eyes were different, though. His eyes were almost luminous. They seemed to belong to a ghost far more than an elven boy. A mere glance into his eyes made the creatures around him shiver and avert their stare to Sora. Thus, fate ordained it so that the older twin became popular: loved for his vibrancy and bubbliness whist his younger twin, Roxas was forced to retreat to the darkness. Though loved by his parents and belonging to a group of friends, nobody ever stared at his eyes as they did at the others.  
He didn't blame them.

The two boys were nine years old when their lived diverged. On their costal street, right before the ocean's body there had lived a seer of sorts who was incompetent in every way. Many of the supernatural creatures believed that she was merely a dementia ridden human until it so happened that Sora and Roxas found themselves before her wrinkled shaking finger. The sea folk had gathered on the ocean shore for Yule when her blind eyes found the two brothers who sat before her.  
She screeched loudly, a noise reminiscent of a banshee, slicing through the festivities and flame arts. As a hush fell upon the people, Roxas and Sora found themselves before her shaking index finger. Her brittle, blind blue eyes began to glow insanely bright in the evening air as she bellowed, voice ringing across the evening air  
"One boy is of light and the other is dark." She yelled before hobbling towards the two boys who remained petrified. Sora yelped as the woman roughly grabbed him by the arm and shook him, prompting Roxas to leap at her and freeze in mid-action when magic held him painfully in place.  
"This boy- THIS BOY." She shook Sora further for emphasis "The King of Hearts is his name. He will bring light to the impending reign of darkness. He will shed light on the battle ahead for great evil beckons upon us. He will save us." Her voice took on a monotonous, almost hypnotising sound as she swayed, voice warping into a sound of omnipotence "And this boy." She'd spat, hauling Roxas upwards from his magical bindings "Will be the bringer of dark." Roxas stopped squirming and grew still as she howled this, eyes widening as a shiver passed across his body "He will steal. He will plunder from the Mother's garden of hearts. He will BRING upon us a great darkness. It is his fate. He is the son of darkness." Roxas and Sora were dropped to the ground as the old lady let go of them and hobbled away for a few steps before collapsing into herself and bleeding away into sand. The festival had dissipated from a joyous event to bleak silence as they gaped at the seemingly human boys: Sora's eyes glancing at them pleadingly while Roxas glared, unsettling eyes growing brighter than ever as it illuminated his face with an eerie shade of blue.

They started to call Sora the King of Hearts who thus became the bearer of light while Roxas was shunned, merely spared with looks of disgust. The people who had once taken his family in were quick to throw him out of their circle, excluding him from councils where they spoke of the ways in which they were to dispose of him. This he knew so he grew quiet and reserved in his sorrow. He ground his teeth and he kept his head down. His friends were loyal enough to remain by his side and his family was much the same but the tale of the old seer seemed to envelope his mind in unreachable darkness despite his attempts not to stray from the light.

And thought the elderly woman's prediction had shook their community, never once did the boys appear any less human. Where the other sea elfs had gained the power of the water goddess, they remained immune to any such magic. Where light elfs were said to have gained their living tattoos, gifts from the sun, they remained completely unblemished and unmarked.

Roxas' life continued onward in a mundane manner up until the moment where Sora had found the mermaid Kairi and the paladin Riku. Roxas never liked Sora's new paladin friend whose unsettling stare made his anger and sadness burn away into numbness. Riku was the warrior of their people's council so it was understandable that he would dislike Roxas but there was something beyond animosity beneath Riku's weariness and aggression which put Roxas on edge. That was why he'd discretely distanced himself from his brother and slowly disappeared from his friends grasps until he'd snapped and fought with the paladin boy.

Roxas met Axel when he was sixteen at the clock tower. The sun had slowly begun to sink into the horizon when somebody had sat beside him  
"Haven't seen you around here." The voice said simply and Roxas merely hummed in response, too exhausted to bother.

Once more he'd been fighting with the others; again he'd pushed them away.

After he'd seen Riku's bloodied face almost obstructed by silver hair before he turned around and sprinted away. The blood on his hands stung him and the smell of blood permeated through his thoughts as the single thought rung above the white noise:  
he really was a monster.

"What's your name?" the voice pestered him and sliced through his thoughts, prompting the boy to face the stranger. He was faced by the most curious elf he'd ever seen- the marking on his arms uncanny of the fire people of the south. The fellow before him was probably in his late teens with ginger hair and the brightest eyes Roxas had ever seen. He hadn't even bothered to hide his features: too symmetrical; too bright; too tattooed. Roxas merely sighed at the fellow beside him  
"Roxas" the other fellow stared at him quizzically, making the boy wonder why he was even talking to a stranger "That's my name." he clarified  
"Oh- nice name." the other boy replied "the name's Axel. Commit that to memory." Roxas snorted, cruelly  
"Sure."  
He knew better than to sit and chat with a stranger. Then again, he'd also known better than to get into fights too. He was a living contradiction so he returned his attention to the sunset while he spoke  
"Why are you here?" it seemed nonchalant and to this Axel laughed in response  
"I dunno. Didn't want to go home just yet plus I've been sitting at this spot for years so that question really should be mine: why are _you _here?" Roxas smiled wryly  
"I don't know either."  
"I'd figured." Hm..? He didn't expect that.  
"Why do you say that?" Roxas asked curiously  
"Because you look like shit," the other fellow said "and because you only stray from the beach when you're lost."  
"How did you-" the blond boy had begun  
"Because you're Sora's brother and word of you travels faster than a forest fire." Axel interrupted.  
He couldn't argue with that, he'd mused as a grimace found its way onto his face.  
"That sound about right." He'd grumbled before he turned his attention to the tattoo which adorned the fellows arm "Aren't you a bit young for the fires to have christened you?" he didn't fight the smile which tugged at his lips as the ginger's eyes widened in surprise  
"You know about-" Roxas laughed at this  
"You should've hid your elven tats, man." The man's face grew suspicious  
"And what would a human boy know about that, hm?" the weariness in his voice gave away to burning hostility  
"Calm down, I'm one of your own." He'd frowned "I'm elf too." He'd amended  
"Sure doesn't look like it…" the red head grumbled and Roxas found himself laughing bitterly  
"I know though I wonder why you'd expect my _twin_ to be elven and me to be human." And like that, they'd fallen into a mildly uncomfortable silence up until the face of dusk raised from the final rays of sunset. He'd heard Axel shift from his seating and stand up before he cleared his throat  
"So…" he was slightly awkward about this "See you around…?" the question hadn't caught Roxas off guard but the unabashed stare which met his own cursed eyes did.  
"Yeah, sure." He said quietly.  
And really, that's simply how their friendship began.

It had taken a year from that day for life to fall apart.  
358 days to be exact.  
Half way through the year Sora began to dream of darkness; of death: of Roxas. He woke up screaming bloody murder as Roxas remained silent, watching like an owl as darkness rose from the cracks of their home. He noticed Axel's nervousness fester at his nerves as he stared at Roxas when he'd thought that the blond was not paying attention. He saw and he noticed and he understood. Perhaps the prophesy was true. He found himself recede from everything once more: retracted himself from Sora whose sleep deprived eyes screamed in fear when faced by his presence; he left Axel alone despite the red head man's persistence and slowly found himself in the shadows once more.  
There, where he was weak and helpless in the darkness, he met her.  
He met Namine.

She was a witch, according to the very people who labelled him as the incarnation of darkness itself. He met her on the midnight beach, where he sat on the rotting wooden dock. The moon bathed the sky ink blue and ushered the world into darkness and silence. In the world of blue, black and silver, he felt strangely at home amidst the loneliness and darkness which whispered to his deaf ears.  
"Hello." The sweet voice startled him from where he was perched, prompting him to turn around violently.  
"Don't be afraid." She giggled and he felt his heart beat slow when faced by the witch of light. He'd heard of the witch girl who lived in a haunted house and wore white.  
"Namine…" he breathed in recognition  
"That's right." Her smile was like sunlight in the darkness and he felt himself edge toward the dock's corner to accommodate her.  
"Thank you, Roxas." He was oddly silent as she sat beside him, jolted to talk when faced by her electric blue eyes  
"How did you know my name?"  
"As you know mine: through rumour."  
"…Oh."  
As he'd sat with Axel in silence all those months ago, he did the same with Namine as the waves lulled them into strangely comforting quiet.  
"You know," she'd whispered "I can help you…"  
From the abysmal ocean, his eyes found hers.  
"What do you mean?" he'd asked, unsettled by her glassy stare which bore into his own eyes  
"I can see the future…." She'd confessed, words sounding bitter in her mouth "and in the future… I always see you."  
He didn't know why but it felt as though they'd met before: perhaps in a long past life which wasn't quite their own.  
"Okay." He said, finally, surprised by himself.

From then onward, the pale confines of her home became more familiar than his own. They'd fit together like two outcast puzzle pieces: one of light and another of darkness. He would always sit perpendicularly to the large arched window which viewed the scape of his costal home while she would draw in her little sketch book, perched on her cream chair before him. They'd spend days in silence where she drew pictures unseen by his unworthy eyes while he mindlessly stared outward and lost himself in the white noise which had seemed to invade his mind in the recent days.  
"Darkness." She'd said once"Is not what defines you." He'd wearily taken in this information and sighed  
"I wish that you were right, Nami…"  
Her head had snapped from her notebook  
"It _is_ true." The silence was disconcerting as she moved from her chair towards him. She had stood before his form and had offered him her hand , merely whispering  
"Let me show you." He'd trusted her enough to stand up and hesitantly grasp her hand.  
Pain surged through his body as her form twisted into a white blur; he'd vaguely heard agonised screams echo around him, realising that it was his own as the darkness around him swallowed his form.  
"Don't be afraid." He heard Namine's sweet voice echo before he was thrust forward.  
He saw a grown version of his friends and family, blades and weapons in hand as their gaze fell upon him. Without control, he felt is body sprint forward, key like blades in hand as he clashed with Sora, then Kairi and Riku before he faced Axel who was bathed in flames.  
"How do you know my name-" Axel's deeper voice echoed before he felt himself fall.

Next he saw a dark haired girl who smiled at him sweetly where they sat in the sunset. She looked outward, towards the setting sun and said something which escaped his ears before leaning forward and- the world warped again.  
He saw a not-quite-Namine before him who looked much older, smiling sadly.  
"Don't do this." Her voice echoed in his mind before his body moved into a dark portal which replaced her pale frame with swirls of shadows. Again, he was fighting a man whose eyes burnt with resentment;  
he saw the man scream out a name but it did not reach him.

He saw Sora fall, Kairi rise as a warrior, Namine grow and a stranger fade before he saw a boy with a face much like his own move toward him and smile, his strikingly identical features hushing the chaos around Roxas as he'd approached his petrified form. He felt the other fellow's palms gently hold his jaw before the fellow's eyes welled with tears  
"I'm sorry." Was the whisper which shattered everything around him with a flash of light.

He found himself gasping on the marble floors of Namine's room where she was nowhere in sight. He was out of breath and his mind was hazy but echoed with half-forgotten faces and words. He'd shakily gotten up and hobbled to her desk where a lone artwork lay. He didn't stifle the gasp he'd elicited as his legs gave way beside her pale desk.  
The picture was of him- clad in black as he stood before Sora- his dear twin- who lay unconscious. The image translating to a vivid memory (or a premonition) in his mind.  
He heaved himself upward and sprinted from her room, down the pale stairs and out of the house. He'd run and run until he found himself before his house where he collapsed once more.  
"…It's almost time, Roxas."  
The words haunted him as he fell into darkness.

He'd avoided Namine after that as the voice continued to haunt him. It had no pitch or tone but rung in his mind, drove him crazy. It had taken him three days to realise that it was only audible to him when Sora had shook him, worry written upon his creased face as he asked what was happening. After that, he'd remained silent and grimaced as the voice ricocheted in his mind, screeching his mind to a halt with cacophonic snarls which sounded like nails on a blackboard. As he hid away from everyone, ignoring the summer heat which slashed though him, he'd dug his blunt nails into his arms until it bled red. Dark, human red.  
Nobody noticed that.

On the 367th day, he'd stood with Sora, pants rolled up as they stood in the ocean together, ice-creams in hand.  
His brother was tired. Dark circles hung beneath his blue eyes and his olive skin had grown pale but he still remained strong as they stood together. He knew it was time.  
"Sora?" he'd asked, coldness coursing through his body as the waves attempted to comfort him..  
"Yeah, Roxas?" Sora had asked, eyes fixed on the horizon, serenely  
"I'm glad that it's you…" he choked out, glad that the crashing waves drowned out his trembling voice.  
"What…?" he heard Sora ask as he fixed his eyes on the sparkling ocean.  
"Never mind." This was goodbye.

The next day he was at the ocean, the world was on the brink of complete consumption from the darkness.  
"Sora!" his voice was hoarse and felt like sandpaper as he continued to run blindly "Fuck- SORA."  
His voice fell upon deaf ears as he sprinted upon the shore, Kairi and Riku in tow as they all searched for him.  
They'd reached the illuminated harbour when those… those _things_ appeared. Their body intangibly sunk into the ground and rose to form blurred, howling monstered with rotten bared teeth and piercing yellow eyes.  
"Roxas…" they'd hissed at once, voiceless words crashing upon him "Roxas… to the clock tower. You'll find him at the clock tower." His knees buckled as he fell to the ground in agony and screamed. The voices rung in his head, the carcophy slicing through his nerve endings relentlessly until his vision was that of illuminated gold in black which screamed with finality  
"Go to the clock tower!"  
He'd gasped as he felt his body been shook.  
"Oh my god, Riku- His eyes… they're yellow!" he vaguely heard Kairi gasp in horror. Clarity hit his senses when faced with Riku's eyes.  
"What happened?" the boy asked him, face unreadable. Roxas honestly was about to recount what happened when the voice whispered into his skull "Roxas….go…Sora…clock tower." and like that, he leapt upright and pushed Riku away, sprinting toward the clock.  
He'd reached the towering building faster than ever and halted when faced with Sora's frail form, crumbled to the ground. Before him stood an indistinguishable silhouette of a man whose eyes glowed ember through the night  
"You finally came." His voice made the hairs at the back of his neck rise  
"What do you want!?" he'd yelled coldly, eyes narrowing as the man laughed.  
"You know why I'm here." His voice- it belonged to the darkness which was clawing through his mind ever since that day with Namine.  
"You-"he'd spat vehemently "What do you want with me?"  
"I don't want anything from you but… Sora is another matter." The man's crooked teeth shone through dusk's shroud as he taunted the blond fellow. Roxas had moved to run to Sora's body, half surprised when the man let him. He'd skidded to the ground, ignoring the scrape it inflicted on his knees as he held Sora. His twin's body was cold to the touch and Roxas felt any warmth drain from him.  
"Oh god." He'd whispered, mortified.  
He roughly grabbed Sora's face and whispered "Sora- Sora, wake up!" the boy remained limped as Roxas began to yell "C'mon- Sora, please!"  
He left Sora on the ground carefully before he leapt towards the man.  
"I know you did this." He hissed.  
"I did" said idly as he stepped toward Roxas "…But you could save him."  
He felt his erratic heart beat slow as the man approached him.  
"How?" he choked out.  
"Sell me your heart and your brother will gain one in your place." He'd thought about the proposition and hesitantly nodded. What was the worst that would happen? He was doomed for darkness and his brother was blessed with light. His life was not worth that of his brothers. He'd be the bringer of darkness unless he died so…  
"Yes." His voice came off shaky "I'll do it." He felt himself go numb as the man toothily smiled at him and clapped his hands together, evidently pleased by Roxas' choice.  
"Good."

A cold kiss was placed to his temple and that was it.

The last thing he properly registered was the echoing, seemingly distant smack of shoes thumping upon the pavement as Namine's gentle voice shrilly screamed his name in far off hysteria, his last sight being the ember eyed man melting away to reveal Axel sprinting with Namine. Both mere blurs of colour as the deal was sealed and tendrils of light encircled his torso until it became an encasing circular vortex. He felt some of the cinders of infrared and flames of ultraviolet enter his bloodstream and dance through his veins as his feet left the ground. He was overwhelmed, eyes fluttering closed before pain wracked his chest as the blinding light seemed to engulf his vision before a shattering crush rung in his pulsing heart where darkness overtook his sensations and his chest felt hollow.

This is how the story began.

* * *

Hello everyone, it's been a while!  
I'm a little surprised that the first fanfiction I've posted in a while is that of Kingdom Hearts opposed to Hetalia. Anyway, this is a little WiP that I hope to continue. It is a Universe Alteration set in an Alternate Universe if it helps to give you guys some perspective on the setting.

I'm sorry if this chapter seems a little vague. I attribute this towards the fact that it is merely the prologue (if I manage to continue this as I'd hoped). I can't wait to immerse myself further in this fandom with my fanfictions.

- Drew

_***Disclaimer: **In no way to I own the Kingdom Hearts or the franchise. Only this piece of writing belongs to me. _


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